GOD said, 'Let us make a helper for Adam3.' And He threw upon Adam a sleep and stupor, and took one of his ribs from his left side, and put flesh in its place, and of it He formed Eve. He did not make her of earth, that she might not be considered something alien to him in nature; and He did not take her from Adam's fore-parts, that she might not uplift herself against him; nor from his hind-parts, that she might not be accounted despicable; nor from his right side, that she might not have pre-eminence over him; nor from his head, that she might not seek authority over him; nor from his feet, that she might
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not be trodden down and scorned in the eyes of her husband: but (He took her) from his left side1, for the side is the place which unites and joins both front and back2.--Concerning the sleep which God cast upon Adam, He made him to be half asleep and half awake, that he might not feel pain when the rib was taken from him, and look upon the woman as a hateful thing; and yet not without pain, that he might not think that she was not meet for him in matters of nature. When Adam came to himself, he prophesied and said, 'This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; this shall be called woman3': and they were both clothed in light, and saw not each other's nakedness.

Footnotes

2 According to Rabbi Joshua of Sichnîn, God did not form Eve from Adam' s head, that she might not carry her head proudly; nor from his eye, that she might not be curious; nor from his ear, that she might not be an eavesdropper; nor from his mouth, that she might not be gossiping; nor from his heart, that she might not be quarrelsome; nor from his hand, that she might not touch everything with her hand; nor from his feet, that she might not rove about. Berêshîth Rabbâh on Gen. ii. 22. Wünsche, Der Midrash Ber. Rab., Leipzig, 1881, p. 78. On Sichnîn, see Neubaner, La Géographie du Talmud, p. 204.